


Kenopsia

by SteampunkDevil



Series: What You Feel, But Never Say [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pre-Slash, Sophia Peletier Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24745264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteampunkDevil/pseuds/SteampunkDevil
Summary: Kenopsia. The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.Callie gets a wake up call.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon & Sophia Peletier, OFC & Daryl Dixon, Sophia Peletier & OFC, Sophia Peletier/OFC
Series: What You Feel, But Never Say [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1788967
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Kenopsia

**Author's Note:**

> Longer chapter than usual.

"I'm tired..." Sophia whined softly. "Can we take a break?"

Callie huffed a strand of dark brown hair out of her eyes and snapped, "Do you wanna find the group or not? 'Cause I dunno 'bout you, but I'd rather get back to my parent than mope 'round these woods and get my face ripped off!" As soon as she said it, she felt a guilty pain in her chest. She knew she shouldn't have gotten mad at Sophia, she probably missed her mom just as much as Callie missed her dad. And was probably even more afraid than she was, since Sophia didn't know shit about tracking. She was technically trusting a twelve year old kid, who barely knew what she was doing, with her life.

She almost said sorry. Almost. But her Uncle Merle's voice rang in her head. 'Apologizin' means you feel bad about what ya said. Even if you do feel sorry, ya gotta stand by what ya said, don't go back on yer beliefs. It'll show 'em that yer strong and ya ain't gonna bow down.' Dad had always said to not listen to Merle, and as much as she loved her Uncle, she didn't trust him. Not completely, not after Atlanta, not after all the Hell he was always causing her dad. But she trusted her dad, and right now, Sophia trusted her.

"Let's take a break, pick up where we left off in a bit," Callie relented.

They sat cross legged next to each other. Callie offered Sophia their half full water bottle, and slightly stressed about when they would run out. The two girls were already running on low supplies, and when they ran out of water, Callie did have a back up plan. Her dad had taught her a very simple way of filtering water with limited supplies. That's what she told Sophia. She didn't tell her that it would take hours. Of course she wouldn't, because then Sophia wouldn't want to drink the water in fear of wasting, exactly like Callie was doing.

"Here. It's the last one, we'll split. When it's gone we're gonna have to hunt around for plants an' berries to eat," Callie muttered, splitting the last protein bar between them.

"Well can't you just hunt something like your dad?" Such an innocent question, but it had Callie counting to ten in her head and forcing herself to take a deep breath like her school counselor had taught her after she punched Ally George in the face for calling her a dumb redneck. No, she couldn't just 'hunt something down like her dad.' She didn't have a crossbow, she didn't have a gun (And even if she did have the balls to shoot off a gun in the woods, it would practically be suicide). All she had was the buck knife with a leather hilt that sat in the crappy homemade leather sheath on her belt.

Instead, she opted for a story. It was what her dad always did. When things got hard, he would tell some crazy story about his childhood, usually including Merle. 

"When my dad was a kid," Callie started. "He said he got lost for nine days. Ate berries and wiped his ass with poison oak. His dad wasn't home and Merle was in prison. Nobody knew he was gone, and when he got home, he walked right in the kitchen and made himself a sandwich."

Sophia giggled at the poison oak part, then said, "I can't believe your dad lets you swear."

"He doesn't, but he said he don't care what kinda language I use. Long as he don't hear it!"

Sophia laughed again, smiling for the first time since their trek in the woods began. Even before then, a smile from Sophia was rare. Callie wasn't stupid (Despite popular belief), she knew what kind of man Ed Peletier had been. Her grandpa was the same way to her dad when he was a kid, as he had explained when she'd asked him why she wasn't allowed to be alone with Grandpa Will. Up until the day he died, whenever her dad had to take her with him to make sure the old man hadn't drank himself dead, he never let her alone with him. Even though the man could barely stand, he never was alone with her. And to be honest, she didn't want to be alone with him. From what she overheard her dad and uncle talking about him, he was not someone she wanted to be unsupervised with.

After about fifteen minutes, Callie urged them to be on the move again, and after a few hours, when it had started to get dark and Callie was slightly fearful and Sophia was dead terrified, they found the cabin in the woods.

"Oh, thank God," Callie breathed. Sophia silently cheered beside her.

The duo thoroughly checked for walkers, then they opened a cupboard under the stairs, which had Sophia mumbling something about Harry Potter (Callie watched the Harry Potter movies, but the books were a bit too overwhelming for her). They both decided it would be best to sleep in the cupboard because it was more secure. 

Sophia whispered, "Do you ever think about the people that might've lived here? Before walkers? Maybe it was a family... Now everything's just... gone."

Callie wrinkled her nose in frustration. "You need to stop thinking so much. Thoughts like those'll make ya feel guilty. We can't afford to feel guilty."

"You mean we can't afford to have emotions?" 

"No, that's not what I-"

"Oh really?" Sophia snapped. "'Cause that's what it feels like! If you're happy you're 'letting your guard down', if your angry you're 'reckless!' Now, if you think about life before, you're 'guilty.'"

Sophia's the kind of person that needed to feel, Callie realized. She couldn't just shut down in the moment then cry herself until she didn't have anymore tears in the middle of the night like Callie.

A voice that Callie recognized all to well was heard outside, interrupting the moment.

"Cal? Sophia?"

"Dad!"

"Mr. Daryl!"

Callie flung open the door and launched herself at her dad, Sophia close behind. Despite Sophia barely knowing him, she hugged Daryl anyways. And he hugged her back just as hard and started talking about how much her momma missed her. Then he hugged Callie tightly and called her an 'Amazin' dumb ass lil' girl'. 

Callie knew that she and Sophia would end up talking about her outburst eventually, but until then, they listened to Daryl Dixon talk about a place referred to as The Greene Farm and how much they were going to love it there.


End file.
